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Justin Bou-Ghazale

Professor Muesing

5April2017

Op-ed Genre Project

Sleep, why do we need it?

Sleep is a very important part of our lives. It is imperative that we receive an ample

amount in order to be able to function to the best of our abilities. Why we need sleep is self-

explanatory. We feel absolutely terrible when we havent slept for a while, and many of our

senses are slowed down. Also our reaction time is significantly slurred, and we are almost acting

like we are drunk. Sometimes, we even zone out from 2 to 20 seconds when we lack a significant

amount of sleep. This can be very dangerous especially if someone is driving.

In the past decades, we have been able to come to the conclusion that sleep is a second

state our body enters, and not where our whole body is resting. We have different stages of REM

(Rapid eye movement) in our sleep, which is a cycle that repeats over and over from when we

fall asleep, to when we wake up. This is very useful information to know because we can

measure how much deep sleep we actually get every night. This will determine if we received a

good nights sleep or not. Typically if we get three to four of deep sleep each night, then we will

wake up feeling refreshed and energized for the next day. I have personally experienced this, and

I recommend it for everyone. Sleep is so essential to our lives and without it we will have

numerous health problems.

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Adults are recommended to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, for a good nights

rest. It is unknown exactly how much each person specifically needs because everyone is

different. How much someone sleeps is based off of genetics, and some people are what you call

long sleepers and some are called short sleepers. This can also vary from each person based

on what type of gene mutation they have. Children and toddlers are recommended to get much

more sleep than adults due to the fact that they are still growing and developing. If children do

not get the recommended amount they could suffer from a number of different illnesses. Children

could develop ADHD where they have a lot of trouble focusing. Maintaining a good sleep

schedule for your children is also essential to their immune system, and keeping them in good

mental health. Lacking in sleep increases the chances of them developing anxiety, depression,

and alcohol abuse when they grow up.

I believe that we should inform people more about sleep, and about how important it is to

us, and especially younger children. We need to start programs in grade school where the

children are taught about how beneficial sleep is and how bad the side effects can be. I feel like if

we are able to accomplish that, then we will see a decrease in the mental illnesses that we have

so much of today. I also believe that they will be more productive in their day to day life and

perform better in school. This one simple change in our school systems could change America as

a whole. I hope that one day we will be able to teach our rising youth about the importance of

sleep and how much it actually matters not getting enough sleep on a nightly basis.

Nearly one third of all working Americans get less than 6 hours of sleep a night.

Although the theory of having to sleep only in a block of eight hours at night is relatively new, it

is what most people believe to be the best way to sleep. In other countries, especially in Europe,

it is very common for people to nap during the day. Taking a nap at any point of the day for only
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24 minutes is prove to increase your cognitive response time, according to David Dinges and his

team at the University of Pennsylvania. I believe naps are very beneficial because I nap a lot and

I feel reenergized and refreshed. It has been prove that naps increase your ability to identify

literal and figurative connections between different items by the researchers at the City

University in New York. Huge companies such as Google give their employees time to nap

during the day if they so please. Google thinks that this will make their workers more productive

throughout the day and they also believe napping is very beneficial for all individuals.

Studies have also come out of the Walter Reed Army Institute led by Thomas Balkin and

his department about the benefits of napping. He stated that he and his team have a theory of the

military commanders knowing how much sleep each one of their soldiers has gotten. This will be

done by each solider wearing a sleep monitor the size of a watch. They also in vision the

commanders to be able to tell a group of soldiers going on mission to take a nap, through the

monitor, so that they are energized for the mission.

Overall I believe that sleep is beneficial in all the ways we receive it. Whether it is an

eight hour block or 30 minute nap, you will wake up refreshed and energized. Sleep deprivation

on the other hand, is very harmful to your health. Over long periods of times this can affect your

health negatively by giving you problems with mental stability. I recommend after my research

to get around eight hours of sleep, based on your own personal preference, because lacking sleep

is very unhealthly.